Wendell Potter, Nation On the Take: How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It (w/Nick Penniman)/Center for Public Integrity/Center for Media and Democracy, joins Thom. The United States of America is now - for lack of a better word - the best democracy money can buy. Billionaire oligarchs like the Koch Brothers now outspend political parties - members of congress spend most of their day begging for donations instead of writing new laws - and lobbyists make millions and billions selling access to the commons. Needless to say - this is not the world our founding fathers envisioned when the declared a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people." We are now - as my guest for tonight's Conversations with Great Minds has titled his new book - A "Nation on the Take." So how did we get to this point? And how can we reform our campaign finance system to reclaim the democratic institutions our founders created?

For more information on the stories we've covered visit our websites at thomhartmann.com - freespeech.org - and RT.com. You can also watch tonight's show on Hulu - at Hulu.com/THE BIG PICTURE and over at The Big Picture YouTube page. And - be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter!

Climate change is the greatest threat our planet has ever faced - and we need to take action now to prevent the situation from getting any worse. But will there ever be enough political will to put the policies in place that are needed to save the future of the only planet we can call home? We'll ask William Becker - Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project - in tonight's special Conversations with Great Minds

Professor Harvey Kaye, the historian and author of Thomas Paine and The Promise of America talks about "the greatest radical of a radical age" and more.

Professor Harvey Kaye, The Fight For The Four Freedoms: What Made FDR And The Greatest Generation Truly Great/University of Wisconsin at Green Bay joins Thom. Seventy-Five years ago next week - FDR gave one of his most important public addresses - the so-called Four Freedoms speech. What lessons does that speech hold for us today - in 2015?

For more information on the stories we've covered visit our websites at thomhartmann.com - freespeech.org - and RT.com. You can also watch tonight's show on Hulu - at Hulu.com/THE BIG PICTURE and over at The Big Picture YouTube page. And - be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter!

Kurt Eichenwald, Vanity Fair, former reporter-NY Times. His new book is 500 Days: Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars. Over the last 11 years - it's been a question asked hundreds of times: Could 9/11 have been prevented if the Bush Adminstration had acted on the intelligence they had at the time. Of course - 9/11 did happen - and Bush took us to war with Iraq shortly thereafter. What was the planning for the Iraq war really like inside the White House - and what roles did the United States' closest allies play in it? We'll ask investigative journalist Kurt Eichenwald in a special edition of Conversations with Great Minds

Bob Edgar joins Thom Hartmann tonight for Conversations with Great Minds. He has an extraordinary resume: author, pastor, former Congressman and CEO of the non-profit organization "Common Cause." We'll discuss his time in office and the issues he's now taking on of war, peace, and the corruption of the Supreme Court.

Sarah Jaffe, NECESSARY TROUBLE: Americans in Revolt/Nation Institute/Belabored Podcast/Dissent Magazine joins Thom. When Bernie Sanders emerged earlier this year as a serious contender for the Democratic nomination - many mainstream pundits were caught off guard. They simply could not understand how a self-described socialist was close to beating Hillary Clinton. Well - they couldn't understand because they hadn't been paying attention. Contrary to what the talking heads on cable news thought - Bernie's campaign wasn't some kind of magical explosion of populism. It was an extension of the surge in political activism that has emerged out of the 2008 financial crisis - a phenomenon that has seen Americans of all races taking to streets in a way we haven't seen in decades. My next guest has written about this movement in depth - and has traveled across the country to learn from the leaders of this new era in American activism. Joining me now for tonight's Conversations with Great Minds is journalist Sarah Jaffe - author of the new book "Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt." Sarah is also a Fellow at the Nation Institute and the Host of the "Belabored" Podcast for Dissent Magazine.

For more information on the stories we've covered visit our websites at thomhartmann.com - freespeech.org - and RT.com. You can also watch tonight's show on Hulu - at Hulu.com/THE BIG PICTURE and over at The Big Picture YouTube page. And - be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter!